Your Liver

Did You Know It's a Really Important Organ?

In fact, it's the second largest one in your body and is located right under your rib cage on your right side. It weighs about three pounds and is shaped like a football that's flat on one side.

Your liver processes what you eat and drink into energy and nutrients your body uses and filters out harmful substances from your blood.

Consider the following amazing facts about the liver and liver disease in our country:

Approximately 5.5 million Americans are living with chronic liver disease or cirrhosis.

Approximately 4.4 million Americans are living with hepatitis B or C; most do not know that they are affected.

Veterans enrolled for care at VA have higher rates (5.4%) of HCV infection than the general U.S. population (1.8%).

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is on the rise. 20-30% of adults and 3-10% of children have excessive fat in the liver or NAFLD, which can lead to serious liver disease called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Liver cancer incidence has more than tripled since 1980.

Your liver is important and it has many functions. The top three are that it cleans your blood of toxins, gives you energy and produces bile for digestion.

Everything you eat, drink and breathe is filtered through your liver. You cannot live without your liver.